General
News
FERC Issues Draft Review Of Stalled Ore. Export Facility.
According to E&E News, “A liquefied natural gas export facility in Oregon that’s faced delays from fierce local opposition took a step forward late last week when staff at the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission released a draft environmental impact statement. The review is the latest regulatory hurdle for the $10 billion Jordan Cove LNG project and its corresponding 229-mile Pacific Connector pipeline to move forward under the Trump administration.
FERC declined to grant a permit to build and operate the pipeline in 2016, one of the first times the agency turned down such a project. The commission at the time said developers had failed to secure voluntary agreements with many of the landowners along
the pipeline route (Energywire, March 18, 2016). If approved, the Jordan Cove project on Oregon’s Pacific coast in Coos Bay would be one of the lone export facilities on the West Coast. It would enable easier transport of Western states’ natural gas to energy-hungry
Asian countries. The draft EIS concludes that ‘constructing and operating the Project would result in temporary, long-term, and permanent impacts on the environment,’ according to a FERC release. The commission’s staff found that those effects ‘would not be
significant or would be reduced to less than significant levels’ if developers took actions to avoid, minimize or mitigate those impacts.” [E&E News,
4/1/19 (=)]
Tracking The Methane Boom.
According to the New Mexico Political Report, “On a late March weekend, State Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard headed out to the Permian Basin, to visit oil wells on state
trust lands. These are wells that churn out profits for corporations, build up the state’s general fund from taxes and royalties and send money to schools and hospitals. Looking through a special camera that detects emissions of volatile organic compounds,
Garcia Richard also saw that the wells are sending methane and other pollutants into the air. ‘There are seemingly innocuous pieces of equipment, tanks, pipes, and then you look at it with the FLIR camera and you can see these clouds of emissions,’ the commissioner
said. ‘We went to some older operations, some newer operations, some [wells operated] by some smaller companies, some by larger companies.’ Not one facility they visited didn’t have emissions pouring out from pipes or seeping out of valves. Many people living
in, or traveling around, northwestern and southeastern New Mexico have spotted flares. During drilling operations, natural gas is sometimes released to clear out impurities or so gases don’t build up to dangerous levels. Gas can also be vented—released but
not burned off. On the federal level, the government has changed tactics from trying to cut methane emissions from oil and gas development to dropping or rescinding those rules. In some places, states are trying to take the lead on methane—to address climate
change, protect public health and make sure companies capture and sell methane, or natural gas, instead of wasting it.” [New Mexico Political Report,
4/1/19 (=)]
UW Study On Methane Emissions Offers Clues To Cascadia Subduction Zone.
According to King 5 News, “A University of Washington study that mapped methane gas emissions off the Washington coast provides new clues as to how the Cascadia Subduction Zone works.
The study, which was published last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, documented 1,778 methane bubble plumes grouped in 491 clusters off the Washington coast. The presence of the plumes isn’t new, but UW oceanography professor Paul
Johnson, who was the lead author, said he was ‘stunned’ by the sheer number of them. The bubbles are created when the Juan de Fuca Plate plunges underneath the rigid North American plate. Sediment gets scraped off, which is then heated, deformed, and compressed
against the North American plate, squeezing out fluid and methane gas. They are mostly clustered between the flat continental shelf and the tectonic boundary, where the shelf descends to the ocean floor. After mapping the plume locations, researchers cross-referenced
seismic data from oil and gas company surveys from the 1970s and 1980s to interpret why the plumes were located there.” [King 5 News,
3/31/19 (=)]
Who Emits More Methane In Colorado: Natural Gas Producers Or Cows?
According to the Denver Channel, “While lawmakers at the Colorado state capitol debate a bill to change the way oil and gas production is regulated in the state, researchers at the
University of Colorado Boulder have come up with a way to better track methane emissions. Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the environment and contributes to climate change. ‘Methane is kind of complicated because it’s a global problem,’ said
Rainer Volkamer, an associate professor of chemistry at CU Boulder. ‘We want to be able to keep track of it and what are the important sources.’ Methane lives in the atmosphere for about ten years, traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole before eventually
being destroyed in the tropics. Colorado has two main sources of methane emissions: natural gas production and livestock. ‘Methane is the same whether it’s emitted from oil and gas or whether it’s emitted from a cow.’ Volkamer said. For years, it has been
difficult for industries to determine whether livestock or natural gas production emits more methane.” [Denver Channel,
3/29/19 (=)]
Op-Ed:
Ditching Obama-Era Methane Rule Is Good For Jobs And The Environment.
According to an op-ed by Kevin Mooney in the News-Herald, “This fall, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that regulates methane emissions from oil and natural
gas production on federal lands. Environmental activists swiftly condemned the decision. Their concerns are unfounded. The Obama administration's 2016 Methane and Waste Prevention Rule was duplicative and costly. By revising it, the administration will help
boost job growth without harming the environment. The Bureau of Land Management introduced the 2016 rule in the waning hours of the Obama administration. The rule required energy companies to capture more methane from their wells by adopting new technologies
and protocols. The goal was to reduce carbon emissions, since methane is a major greenhouse gas. The Waste Prevention Rule was a costly solution in search of a problem. Regulations to limit methane emissions already exist at both the federal and state levels.
The BLM rule simply added a new, duplicative layer. The rule also ignored that energy firms have a strong incentive to minimize methane emissions. Methane is the main component in natural gas, the very thing firms are trying to extract and sell. Energy firms
that let methane escape are foregoing profits.” [News Herald,
3/29/19 (-)]
Chad Ellwood
Research Associate
202.448.2877 ext. 119